CM flexes muscle in rout of St. John’s
Top-ranked Knights boast balanced attack
SHREWSBURY — It took until the second quarter for it to find a rhythm, but once top-ranked Catholic Memorial shook off the rust, the Catholic Conference juggernaut had little issue flexing its powers in the seasonopener to effectively dismantle St. John’s of Shrewsbury, 42-10, on Saturday.
Three first-quarter turnovers from the Knights didn’t play too much of a hinderance, as strong performances from the secondary on the other side of the ball — as well as numerous stops on third down — gave CM (1-0) all the time it needed for the offense to catch up. Datrell Jones and Carson Harwood combined for 144 yards on the ground en route to a pair of scores each, powering an offense that found most of its success in a 21point third quarter.
Quarterback JC Petrongolo (186 passing yards, two TDs, two interceptions) also did enough in the passing game up until he left the game due to injury to overcome a slow start, but three forced turnovers and a 1-of12 showing on third down from the defense played as vital a role as any to earn the win.
“They’re a very good team, No. 1,” said head coach John DiBiaso. “No. 2, we didn’t have a scrimmage … we were really rusty. We had three turnovers in the first half, but we only gave up three points at the half. That’s a testament to the defense, so now we’ve got to button up some things and eliminate some mistakes.”
While the Knights scored with ease on the first possession as Petrongolo connected deep with Zach Mitchell (four receptions, 104 yards, TD) to set up a Jones 5-yard rushing touchdown, the Pioneers (0-1) defense quickly defused that momentum with its pass rush. Quinn Herlihy strip-sacked Petrongolo on the ensuing possession, and a collapsing pocket forced the sophomore quarterback into two interceptions on downfield heaves in the same frame.
The Catholic Memorial defense answered the call to maintain the slim lead, though, by recovering a fumble on a poor handoff, by forcing St. John’s into a 28yard Sam Lavallee field goal despite the Pioneers starting the possession inside the CM 10 after the strip-sack, and by producing another turnover on a Mitchell interception. The Pioneers started depending on Bobby Rodolakis (26 carries for 183 yards) as they struggled to do much of anything through the air, but 19 of those rushes produced three or less yards, especially on third-and-short situations.
DiBiaso and the offense started reaching into the bag of tricks in the meantime, allowing Jones to rip off a 64-yard touchdown run on a reverse and Petrongolo to find Mitchell for a 32-yard TD pass on a flea-flicker. CM entered the break with a 21-3 lead.
“That’s going to be the for
mula people use against us I think, people are going to try to run the ball,” DiBiaso said. “We’ve got to be strong against the run, we’ve got to be physical up front.”
The rest seemed like a cakewalk, with a blocked punt leading to a 16-yard TD hookup from Petrongolo to Kaloe Osinubi on a corner route. A 45-yard run from Rodolakis set up Ryan Coonan for a 1-yard keeper touchdown to help St. John’s
trail 28-10, and the Pioneers gained a little momentum by sacking Petrongolo (which forced him to leave the game in a sling) on third down.
Yet, CM’s defense forced a three-and-out, and Conor Fitzgerald thrived in Petrongolo’s stead with 67 passing yards on two passes before Harwood ripped off TD runs of two yards and 20 yards to extend the lead to 42-10 before the end of the third quarter.